As customers become more aware of the chemicals used to make the products they buy and the perils some chemicals pose, discount giant Dollar Tree says it’s investing significant time and money to ensure its suppliers are selling products that are independently tested and meet or exceed regulatory requirements.

But a group of consumer advocates and a Catholic nun well known for encouraging corporations to behave want the Chesapeake-based retailer to prove it, especially as it relates to keeping harmful phthalate chemicals – often used to make plastics soft – lead, BPAs and other toxic materials out of children’s toys and products.

“We’re not getting any data that tells us they’re doing any work,” said Sister Nora Nash with the Sisters of St. Francis in Philadelphia. She’s a member of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility coalition, which pushes companies to act responsibly.

The activist investor used her shareholder status in Dollar Tree to allow the Campaign for Healthier Solutions from the Environmental Justice Health Alliance to address executives in person at the company’s June 15 meeting at the Founders Inn in Virginia Beach.

Nash had told The New York Times in 2011 that she intended to focus on Family Dollar, since bought by Dollar Tree .

She said the company has said things that sound good, relative to testing, but hasn’t offered proof.

“If they are really doing it, they need to show us in writing,” she said recently.

So far, it appears one of the few groups to get the company’s plans in writing is its product suppliers.

According to the company, Dollar Tree and Family Dollar wrote two separate but identical letters to suppliers on Dec. 22 and Jan. 13 listing 17 chemicals – including BPAs, lead and two kinds of phthalates (diethyl and dibutal) – the company wants removed from products it sells.

The letters stated Dollar Tree wanted “a listing of any (products) sold to us in the last 12 months that contains any of the chemicals listed on our priority chemical list.” For products that didn’t contain those chemicals, Dollar Tree wanted certification. The company asked for responses by Jan. 31 and Feb. 28, respectively.

“Our goal is to eliminate the use of chemicals of high concern in our products by 2020,” the letter concluded.

Company spokesman Randy Guiler said nothing prompted the letters being sent. He wouldn’t say how many responses the company received and whether any products contained the chemicals. Guiler said in an email: “We were extremely pleased with the response from our suppliers and their commitment to support us in our efforts.”

It wasn’t stated what, if anything, would happen to suppliers that didn’t participate. The letter says the company expects its vendors “to reduce and eliminate the use of all identified priority chemicals in our products.”

The company hasn’t mentioned the letter in its public financial filings and didn’t appear to tell shareholders, consumers or the consumer advocates wanting proof.

He declined to say how much the public company spends to ensure the safety of its products.

Eric Whalen with the Campaign for Healthier Solutions said his group was unaware of the letters.

“We don’t really understand why the details of their actions are being kept secret – because we’d like to congratulate companies doing this sort of work, and we’d prefer to be cheerleaders for healthy communities instead of being negative,” he said. “This secrecy appears counterproductive, at least if Dollar Tree is interested in maintaining the faith of its customers in an open and honest way.”

The Consumer Product Safety Commission hasn’t cited Dollar Tree for phthalates or lead violations since April 2015, according to the agency’s online data. But beginning in 2012 until that time, the company was ordered to stop selling and to dispose of more than 603,000 items, including dolls, bath toys, blow darts and toy cars, all manufactured in either China or Taiwan, that contained lead or phthalates above an allowed level.

Products intended for children younger than 13 years old cannot contain lead greater than 100 parts per million. Phthalate levels cannot exceed 0.1 percent. In 2014, the store pulled Clingy Darts from its shelves after New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo urged a recall, claiming the toy had six times the allowable level of phthalates.

Dollar Tree alone sold more than $10 billion worth of products last year. The behemoth retailer now owns more than 14,000 stores across the U.S. and Canada since it bought Family Dollar in 2015.

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Kimberly Pierceall has been covering business news for The Virginian-Pilot since venturing east in early 2016 after writing for the Associated Press in Las Vegas and the Orange County Register and The Press-Enterprise in Southern California.

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kimberly.pierceall@pilotonline.com

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